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| Inimitable, Investing and Incarcerated | |
Celebrity stockbroker, Rene (Rich Bastard) Rivkin has been sentenced to nine
months weekend detention after being found guilty of insider trading in which
he profited a whopping $335. Yes, this is the guy who wouldn't think of
spending less than $500 on lunch, accused of cheating the rest of the
hardworking Australian shareholders of $350. Clearly Rivkin has incurred the wrath of Australia's legal fraternity, and with
good reason: Firstly he's a smug, fat, flamboyant, arrogant, cigar-smoking Jew who likes
to wear more gold than even most lawyers could buy with their yearly
wage. That's reason enough for many to hate him. Secondly Rene talks about getting rich simply for the sake of spending money on
one's self and hardly ever mentions the collective good. Even lawyers have the
decency to do the occasional pro-bono and pretend the legal fraternity are more
than just social and economic parasites. Thirdly, he seems to make his money solely on the stock exchange which most
lawyers believe is a zero sum game, and doesn't actually produce anything
useful. Of course the reality is quite different (even the apparent
zero-sum-game of the futures market has enormous risk-offset benefits for
participating parties), but even if it were true, even a zero sum game would be
preferable to the nasty negative sum games the legal fraternity are so well
known to create in order to serve their own interests. And for those of us whose view of wealth is that rich people get money only by
taking it from other people, that's more than enough reason to deprive someone
of the equivalent to two and a half months liberty. So Rene goes down. And all for the price of a lunch - this must seem like rough justice for Rene,
who will spend two days a week enjoying the cuisine of Her Majesty's hotel.
At least it'll be taxpayer funded, but this is unlikely to excite Rene, who has
to also pay a $30,000 fine. Yes, Rene, there really is no such thing as a free lunch.
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